


A World of Difference (Between Us)

by neverending_shenanigans



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, First Meetings, Storm Coast (Dragon Age)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-31 10:40:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21444889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neverending_shenanigans/pseuds/neverending_shenanigans
Summary: Bull has his mission, and he begins his work the moment he meets the Herald. That the woman seems to be entirely uninterested and closed-off will not stop him.Aka, the first meeting between Bull and Issalara Adaar and his impression of her eratic behaviour.
Relationships: Female Adaar/Iron Bull, Female Inquisitor/Iron Bull
Comments: 8
Kudos: 53





	A World of Difference (Between Us)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Atropaia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atropaia/gifts).
  * Inspired by [I Need an Ocean (Between Me and My past)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21398461) by [neverending_shenanigans](https://archiveofourown.org/users/neverending_shenanigans/pseuds/neverending_shenanigans). 

> Spin-off of my NaNoWriMo "I need an ocean" story. Chapter 4 from Bull's perspective.

Bull was surprised when the so called Herald made her appearance at the Storm Coast; surprised despite having had the missive that the Herald appeared to be a Vashoth of unknown origin and surprised despite Krem’s report on meeting her.

It was always different seeing one of their grey faces and tall statues and horned heads in the sea of Southeners, of course. That probably accounted for half of the surprise, at least.

Another part of his surprise was that she was quite the looker. No denying that.

The first though that came to mind when he saw her was ‘practical’ and then ‘bold’. She wore a black pauldron on her shoulder that went down the whole right arm. Good choice for someone who was used to casting in close proximity – and people of their size tended to draw the heat in a battle. Her leather coat was worn and frayed at the hem, but it was of a dark-red colour – good with blood stains. It also seemed that there was a bit of black armor on her chest, though he couldn’t quite tell. She had a lot of pouches on her, too, and sturdy boots. Her staff fit into this too – a long, thick thing with a simple grip a small focus of pale, white energy at the end, but also a relatively long, curved blade attached at the end that made it double-function as a scythe, if need be.

The rest of her appearance told a more contradictory story. The snow-white hair that was tied back into a high braid - but she wore it long. Her curled black horns were decorated with flashy gold baubles. Her face was painted with white paint, but it was done half-heartedly, crude work – so more for practicality and not for ritual purposes. There was no other make-up either. The hair and the baubles didn’t fit completely into the image of a practical person and frontline-fighter.

When they finally left their vantage point on the hill and came down to them, he also observed their walking order. Human warrior first, then the elf and the dwarf. She seemed to have fallen behind almost naturally, and the way she approached him was strategic in an almost unconscious way – she never had her back to the majority of his men, and she walked angled in such a way that she could have easily fallen back again.

Bull made sure to shift into a more relaxed stance, give them a welcoming grin, and engage her first. He let out a laugh. “Damn, it’s true. Oh the Chantry must love you. A Qunari mercenary is the herald of Andraste. Who’d’a thought.“

Her steps faltered at that, but her expression didn’t change. Couldn’t be sure what had tripped her there. Maybe the Chantry thing – it certainly tripped up that human woman. He could tell from her flaring nostrils and the sound of absolute disgust. A loyal Andrastian. Made sense, considering the symbol on her armor. Maybe this Herald person was also more faithful than the report had implied? He could tell she was looking him over, overthinking this maybe a bit.

He was yet again when she suddenly bowed her head a bit and greeted him in the Qunari way. “Shenedan, Sten”.

Yeah, no. That shit wouldn’t do at all if he wanted to keep a low profile later on and get in good with the southeners. And judging from her companion’s reactions it shouldn’t fly there either. Made him wonder why she had chosen these words.

He made sure to dissuade her of the use of the Qun stuff, use the excuse to lean in a bit and get a better look at her face painting. It wasn’t simply paint – it was Vitaar. He hadn’t been sure from the half-assed way it was applied but the smell was very distinct. Interesting.

He also noticed that his words didn’t get him the expected reaction. No relief, no smile or laugh. So the greeting had not been a test of him, on her part. Shit, was she one of those Vashoth who thought they believed in that bastardized Qun they had here sometimes? Her face had become even more blank. She was closing of quickly. Maybe it was the Qun thing. Or she felt challenged by the proximity? She was tall – with quite a nice pair of legs on her - but he was still at least a head taller than her.

He leaned back, and decided he needed to change pace a bit. Man, something was off about this one. He could get a chill just from those frosty blue eyes, really. He gestured for them to follow, and settled himself on a nearby stone. That gave her the height advantage, at least.

He registered that dwarf and elf had decided to leave the group as he introduced Krem. Strategically, he would guess. It was also useful that Krem came over. People always liked Krem. And Krem knew the spiel. With a Qunari as a Chief, it was important to be likeable – a joke here and there, an easy grin. Inwardly, Bull was quite proud. He had taught him well. He’d make sure to let Krem know later.

But the charm-thing seemed to fall on deaf ears with the icicle. She greeted Krem with just a nod, not even a smile. Her posture remained stiff, and her grip on her staff tightened on an off again. It was as if she was trying not to grip it so fast and then forgot. He had to try and melt that attitude.

She also seemed not to be interested at all in their Qun-Banter. But neither did the human, so that didn’t give him much to go on. So at least those two were all-business. Fine, for now. He’d have time to figure them out more once they got themselves hired.

He looked back and forth between both of them. Maybe it was time to figure out this leadership thing, then. Break the leader in first. “So. You’ve seen us fight. We’re expensive, but we’re worth it. And I’m sure the Inquisition can afford us.”

The human woman seemed to take the reins first, pressing for details. She reminded him of a war dog. Bull paced her a bit, tried to turn up the heat a bit. Not to toot his own horn, but he knew that the grin and wink thing could do things to people. And yeah, maybe he also tightened his abs a bit. She had looked at them earlier. Once more, though, she didn’t react. It was so much of a non-reaction that it was telling in itself.

But her eyes had fleetingly skitted to the human woman at the question, and there had been a frown. Not directed at her, though. Money issues, maybe? The report hadn’t gone into details.

Worth a shot to try that angle. Bull reassured them that this wouldn’t be the issue. They didn’t know it, but he’d have to go without pay entirely to make this work. There had been no room for debate. But for the sake of his boys he sure as fuck hoped that could be avoided. The Qun wouldn’t pay them.

The next few seconds were interesting. The Seeker seemed openly suspicious of him, but her attention snapped to the Herald. Where she had clearly put herself into a leading position earlier, practically charging at him, she seemed unwilling to close this deal. Interesting, that one.

The Herald, on her part, was observing him. Her face was calm, but it was too calm. It was clear she was masking her emotions, but she couldn’t mask how she shifted her whole weight from one leg to another. Defensive position. She was unsure of this. And then the Seeker physically reached out when her look seemed to go ignore, and the Vashoth woman moved. The shift was fluid and clearly without second thought, but she entirely avoided the woman’s hand. The Seeker, however, looked not surprised but instead almost guilty. Her own body language shifted, from her shoulders to her stance.

There was something going on there about physical proximity. It wasn’t demonstrative, but it was clearly not the first time this had come up. He just wasn’t sure if the Herald knew it. Despite focusing her attention on the woman, there was a distance there. And judging on their words, their stance and their movements it was the Herald who made sure it was kept.

This fit into the fact that the Seeker very openly asked her opinion. It seemed to be about expertizing as a Mercenary, but the phrasing implied a deference on the whole decision. Yeah, solid icicle, that one. She’d be a piece of work. He liked challenges, though, and hadn’t had to work a Vashoth in a while, so that should be fine.

He observed as the woman seemed to do the thing again, where she clenched and unclenched her grip on her staff subconsciously. But when it stayed unclenched and she voiced hesitant approval Bull knew he had won this round.

Bull got up from his position and chose to test the physical proximity thing a bit. If she couldn’t stand any physical closeness it would be natural for her to back down. And from the way her shoulders tensed he could tell that she had wanted to, too. But it mattered that she didn’t. He liked how she raised her chin and crossed her arms in defiance. Damn, she had noticed what he was doing, huh? But maybe there was a bit of fire under all that ice, at least. He liked that. Bull couldn’t keep a bit of a grin off his face.

But that perceptiveness also made this next thing a bit harder. He’d done his research before reaching out, and he knew there was only one way of approaching this even before this suspicious little block of ice had shown up: Be as up front as can be. He leaned in even closer. He could smell her now, under that Vitaar. Or not her – her horn-balm. He_ knew_ that smell. Damn, was that from … Rivain? There was some herb in it that stood out. Bull had to force himself not to inhale it too deeply, lest she be creeped out by the sniffing.

.“And there’s one other thing. Might be useful, might piss you off.”

And then, after creating some suspension with a pause, he dropped the bomb. “Ever hear of the Ben-Hassrath?” He hadn’t been quite sure if the word would mean something to her – not all Tal-Vashoth taught their children stuff of their past. He’d met more who had been fucking clueless, to be honest. But he’d hoped that she wouldn’t be that kind.

And it seemed she wasn’t. This had to be the most reaction he had gotten out of her so far. Her pupils dilated in the blink of an eye, and her breathing seemed to stop entirely for a moment. He couldn’t see it, but he’d bet from the tightening muscles on her neck that she had just tightened the grip on her staff again.

And just as informative was how quickly she recovered – or tried to. Her breathing was almost too even within moments again. Some of that he could have chalked up to mere surprise, but it was too much too quickly – without having to think much on the word before the realization hit her – and then too controlled. She frowned, and nodded. But Bull needed a bit more. He wanted to hear it. The phrasing and the tone of her voice – would it be higher or lower?

She thwarted him though, remaining almost monosyllabic. “Enforcers. Spies.”

Someone had definitely trained her in this. She was good, too. Oh yeah, he would absolutely have a bit of a challenge in this one. Would be got to get out the old-toolbox, though. He leaned back a bit, so he could see more. If she already reacted this way to the mere mention of the Ben-Hassrath, this ought to be interesting. “Yeah. That’s them. Or, well, _us_.”

Where her breath had stopped earlier, it quickened now, and her muscles seemed to flex involuntarily. She made a step back, and her posture shifted once more – shoulders rolled back, and the staff just a bit akimbo. He half expected – half wanted,dammit – her to attack him then and there. Oh shit. She had absolutely been taught about them by her parents or someone else. Someone who knew something, at least, that wasn’t entirely wrong.

She remained wide-eyed and staring at him, and her whole behavior was so off that it drew the attention of her other two companions, who had been watching them from a bit away this whole time, pretending to have a look at the dead Vints. Both of them came over with quite a calculating expression and Bull made sure to keep his as relaxed and open as possible.

Interesting. So it wasn’t just the woman, all of them had arranged themselves as orbiting around the Herald. Even now she took over and resumed her questioning. He was sure, though, that she couldn’t exactly tell what had happened there. It seemed more of an instinctual thing. So he could at least report that much back to his people.

And maybe tell them off from further contact until he had figured this out. Her fear reaction had broken through the ice, even though she was already getting a grip back, and slipping back into the solid ice. She turned her head and started out to the water and made another step back. Her breathing paced itself to the waves.

Bull decided he’d have to put that on top of his to do list. She seemed afraid of the Ben-Hassrath. Maybe they’d hunted her Tal-Vashoth parents. Didn’t happen offen, that wasn’t their job, but it had come up a couple of times. If she was a mage, maybe there’d been a Sareebas in her parentage. He’d have to figure that out first. What surprised him, however, was that other bit under the fear. The whole shift from defensive to offensive, even if she hadn’t attacked him. There was anger there.

He wasn’t sure she heard any of his explanation, but it took a solid minute or two for her breathing to be normal, and her posture to shift. She did not, however, loosen the grip on her staff. And the Seeker, at least, also didn’t seem to like the idea of a Qunari spy working with them.

He was quite sure that the whole thing had suddenly blown up in his face when the dwarf spoke up. So he played up the information angle. Made sure that he let it show through that he was already in the picture with them anyway. It wasn’t quite what he had hoped to settle on. He’d have liked them to hire him for his muscles and use him as a bodyguard. The spy thing was more of an added bonus.

They didn’t like him to pass on reports. But if they had real issued with that, they’d let him know, no doubt.

And it seemed to work. The Seeker had turned back to him, the dwarf had seemed intrigued. The elf had seemed entirely unhappy, but you couldn’t win ‘em all with one hand of cards, right? And once more, all looked to their horned icicle of a Herald. The woman closed her eyes, as if trying not to notice herself.

Then she opened her eyes, after a moment. She surprised him for the third time this evening when her blue eyes settled on him and she made a step forward. More than one step – another. And there was a fierce anger dancing in those ice-blue irises. The end of her staff was angled behind towards his heels, and her nostrils flared.

Finally, she spoke up and it was the most she had said in this whole encounter. She spoke slowly – and she had a nice deep and soft voice, he realized. “You run your reports past the Spymaster before sending them. You send nothing she doesn’t approve.” She crossed the whole distance between them and stood close enough that he once more inhaled a nose of that horn balm. Shit. The air between them should have become hot because _hot damn_ – but the opposite happened. He wouldn’t be surprised to find frost on his nipples, and then her words seemed to cool the air down further. “If this is a trick, if you compromise the Inquisition, I will _end_ you.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” He’d succeeded in melting her at least. Not the way he had hoped, though. He’d have to be careful not to burn any bridges there.

For another moment she remained this fucking close, and Bull caught himself not breathing. For a hot second he was convinced that she would attack him now. And then she turned, abruptly, walking off. Without even a word, the others followed.

Bull stared after them, calling out to his boys. He stared after them until they disappeared between the trees. He recalled the missive they had sent him: _Inquisition unknown force between Ferelden and Orlais. Gathering allies, political interest yet unknown. Leadership unclear. Includes Seeker, Templar, Diplomat and “Herald of Andraste”. Female, mage of unknown origin, likely Vashoth. Mercenary for over ten years, Valo-Kas. Disposition towards faith and order unknown. Qun interested in stabilizing Group; Tevinter activity in region noted. Engage, join, befriend, observe leadership. _

Yeah, right. Join he’d just about managed. “Befriend” would definitely be a bitching amount of work. He couldn’t help but to look forward to it, though.

**Author's Note:**

> As I decided to stick to Lara's PoV in the original thing I didn't want to include this there. But when Atropaia mentioned wanting to see it, I admit I was very easily swayed - because I had taken notes anyway. Bull is a darn good spy, y'all and much as i love my snowflake, she has no idea JUST how much Bulll can read from the bit she's giving him.


End file.
